Why Bother with Brick and Mortar?

It should be obvious that there is a lot involved in running a retail location. What isn’t totally obvious based on the research we’re reading is that retailers haven’t necessarily unlocked their most important assets in the field – their local store management and staff. Much as been written about the benefits of having well trained and productive store management, yet stories persist of retailers who are ignoring the opportunity right in front of them.

In last week’s blog, we cited a post from Gallup that showed the importance of selecting the right store manager. Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore additional research we’ve found about the correlation between store manager productivity and store sales, retention and more.

One study we found said that a retailer that reduced administrative tasks by 50% saw a 10% increase in sales.

Look, we totally get it when retail executives talk to us about needing “hard ROI” from their software investments, and we agree. However, ignoring the human factor in retail is a lot like “not seeing the forest through the trees.” If you are going to invest in brick and mortar, you need people to run those stores. And if you get the wrong people and leave them under-trained and with bad technology, bad things happen.

One former retail executive told us “off the record” that not having a store manager was a lot better than having a bad one running the store.

Ultimately, it’s all about the customer.

Store managers know it. Management knows it. Even your customers know it. It’s all about the customer experience. Research suggests that store managers are spending up to 40% of their time on purely administrative tasks – that’s 40% less time with customers, focused on sales and revenue and on customer experience.

If you are going to invest in brick and mortar, stack the odds in your favor by focusing on putting the right store management in place, and giving them the time they need to win with customers. Every second counts when you have a customers that expect a great in-store experience.